Friday Android app fiesta: Podcasts, photography, and to-do lists

Ars recommends three apps for the Android users to check out this weekend.

Happy almost-weekend, Android-using Ars Technicans! Got any plans for the weekend? Whether you do or don’t, let me direct you to these three fantastic Android apps you should try out in your free time. I’ll be checking in every other Friday with more recommendations for apps that are worth taking up those precious, limited megabytes on your Android handset or tablet.

If you have any suggestions of your own for apps that we should check out, please leave a comment below!

It’s unfortunate that Android doesn't come with its own podcast suite, especially considering how much content you have access to through the Google Play store. This makes it difficult for users switching over from the comfortable throes of Apple’s iTunes ecosystem, where podcast syncing was a cinch. Never fear: the Google Play store has a few podcast gems that can help alleviate this issue.

Podkicker Pro is one of the better applications available in the Google Play store, and its bare-bones interface makes it easy for anyone to use. You can add podcasts by name, or RSS feed. you can also share your currently subscribed podcasts with Podkicker to retrieve a list of podcasts you may be interested in listening to. Podkicker’s search engine also enables you to refine your query with boolean search, so you can search for a podcast spinning the latest drum and bass music, but excluding anything that might lump dub-step into that category.

There’s a free version available for those of you who would rather not shell out the $2.99, though it has ads and comes with fewer features than its paid counterpart.

Frankly, there’s still nothing more efficient than writing your to-dos down on a piece of paper to prepare for the work day. However, when you’re out and about and things come to mind, sometimes all you have is your phone on hand. In comes Astrid: a to-do application that’s kind of like the annoying personal assistant you've always wanted—great for pushing you to get things done, hard to ignore if you're a procrastinator.

If you need something that's persistent in keeping you on task, Astrid will do the job. You can write down your tasks, set up the app to sync with services like Google Tasks, and then Astrid will pop up (in the Notifications panel) throughout the day to make sure you’ve completed what you need to do. You can set a due date for a specific to-do, and there’s also a Chrome plug-in that seamlessly integrates with the app. You can also purchase the Astrid Power Pack for $3.99 which buys you the ability to add tasks using your voice and to download widgets in varying sizes.

Instagram’s tilt-shift features are handy, but they’re not very customizable. EasyFocus lets you focus in on a very specific part of a photo, while "defocusing" the rest of the subject around it. It’s an easy way to tack on SLR-like focus effects to your smartphone photos, or make a huge crowd in a baseball stadium look like a bunch of miniature figurines. EasyFocus also enables the user to freehand the focus area, for more precision. You can also use the Photo Enhance tool to make images look more vibrant.

...great for pushing you to get things done, hard to ignore if you're a procrastinator

No, no, no, and, I must add, no! I'm pretty serious about the art of procrastination. Give me easy to ignore and dismiss, or the deal is off. I've quite a bit more to say about this, and may return to this thread at a later time. [Clickety-click. There, I've scheduled it.]

as someone who listens to tens of hours of podcasts every week, the best is unquestionably BeyondPod

As someone who listens to a large number of podcasts. I also will vouch for beyond pod. it is amazing. Although one thing that drives me crazy is the mark all as read inconsistency. A lot of stuff will constantly be remarked as unread and the default view (All items, Unread only, My Episodes, etc.) constantly changes and that drives me crazy.

Android used to come with Google Listen which was passable. BeyondPod is also what I use now. I probably download 80+ hours a week to have a good selection for the week and everything downloads in the middle of the night. It's easily my most used app and it's so good it makes me cringe when looking at iOS and fearful of what will come with WP8.

First off I want to say that this is interesting to see on Ars and I'll definitely be following later instalments.

Now, I have probably become overly cynical from the mountains of "try these 56 great new apps this week!!" articles on many Android focused sites (I think you know the ones I'm talking about), so please don't take offence at this question, I am not meaning to imply anything, I'm just honestly curious.

What is the source of these app recommendations exactly? How is an app chosen for these lists? Are these apps that Ars staff are using and personally want to recommend, or are these apps which have perhaps asked to be covered or evaluated by Ars?

To put it another way: Is this more equivalent to Ars reviewing a new smartphone, or is this more equivalent to "The Dealmaster"?

Android used to come with Google Listen which was passable. BeyondPod is also what I use now. I probably download 80+ hours a week to have a good selection for the week and everything downloads in the middle of the night. It's easily my most used app and it's so good it makes me cringe when looking at iOS and fearful of what will come with WP8.

word. Podcast people are generally pretty picky I think about interfaces and I agree beyondpod is the best I have tried.

I'm always looking for good app recommendations so I'll be checking in each week! I just really do not have the patience to sift through google play to see if there is something I want so I'd love for someone to do the work for me. :-)

Android used to come with Google Listen which was passable. BeyondPod is also what I use now. I probably download 80+ hours a week to have a good selection for the week and everything downloads in the middle of the night. It's easily my most used app and it's so good it makes me cringe when looking at iOS and fearful of what will come with WP8.

word. Podcast people are generally pretty picky I think about interfaces and I agree beyondpod is the best I have tried.

80+ hours a week of podcasts...don't know how you do it !

The amount is just for variety. Some of it is just audio of tv shows(60 Minutes, Frontline, PTI). Then there's Twit shows half of which get deletted off the bat. Theres a mix of gaming podcasts and Off the Hook. The rest are NPR programs (Car Talk, Snap Judgement, Talk of the Nation, etc).

I use gReader Pro for simplicity and to stream videos easier not just to download them. Use Google Reader too, mainly cause I can sort older feeds that I star too weed out the ones that I don't care to listen/see..

This is something that I thought as soon as I saw the post. If this is "sponsored", it needs to be disclosed.

Just to be 100% officially clear, we always disclose any sponsorship of our content. There is no kick-back for posting about these, no one is choosing them for us.

The Dealmaster posts are somewhat special, they aren't really editorial content, just a curated list of things that have deal or sales or whatever. We do have a partner for those that compiles that master deals database, and we disclose their involvement.

So if it doesn't otherwise say you can always know it's purely from us. (I know we sometimes use affiliate links when linking to stores where we see some tiny % if you buy through our link, but I wouldn't consider that a conflict, we still choose what to write about.)

I used to use Astrid all the time, but IIRC I stopped after my copy of Logging Test App identified the 3rd-party analytics library included in the .apk. I looked them up and decided I wasn't comfortable enough with them, and that was that. I can't remember its name, and I tried looking, but I'll have to search again later when I've got more time.

Astrid lets you download old versions straight from their website, which is great, and seemingly increasingly rare these days. It's great for someone like me who's intentionally removed the Play Store.

I personally find the 'Tasks' Android app to be the best when it comes to organizing using Google Tasks. GTasks is quite nice too (since the free version is only different by having ads). But Astrid - I'm not sure what it was about it, but I didn't like it. Maybe it was a bit too flashy with its color scheme, not sure. Either way, I'm so glad that the Android platform offers so many ways to organize your day.

I use Taskos for my task list. It includes voice input, and is still free. Todo list app was one of the first things I looked for when making the switch to Android from iOS in 2010. I tried a few and this was the best one then. Not sure how new ones compare now, but Taskos still works great for me.

First off I want to say that this is interesting to see on Ars and I'll definitely be following later instalments.

Now, I have probably become overly cynical from the mountains of "try these 56 great new apps this week!!" articles on many Android focused sites (I think you know the ones I'm talking about), so please don't take offence at this question, I am not meaning to imply anything, I'm just honestly curious.

What is the source of these app recommendations exactly? How is an app chosen for these lists? Are these apps that Ars staff are using and personally want to recommend, or are these apps which have perhaps asked to be covered or evaluated by Ars?

To put it another way: Is this more equivalent to Ars reviewing a new smartphone, or is this more equivalent to "The Dealmaster"?

The source of these app recommendations are: me! I use every app for at least a week before I even consider writing about it. I find apps by checking out whatever the Google Play Store is showcasing, finding out what other Android users are raving about, or asking my friends and colleagues. If you have a specific recommendation you are always welcome to email me and I'll check it out.

I don't mind if the apps promoted here are part of some of these networks, developers are entitled to make money how they see fit (and I certainly don't have install these apps). But I think this being Ars the author should take the extra step to discover and disclose these potential privacy issues.

For those looking for a new tasks app, Any.DO mentioned in the comments seems to be ad free and GTasks (also mentioned in the comments) is part of the AdMob ad network which has an opt-out option. I've been using ColorNote (ad free) for a few years now, it has an online sync feature, but not with Google Tasks.